


Stacking the Odds

by Mythril (fantacination)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe- Marriage, Everyone just rolls with the sheith, Fluff, He didn't realize Voltron was run by teenagers, Hint of Lance/Allura, Humor, I'm sorry I'm tired too, It's ensemble, M/M, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Poor Kolivan, Slav and the Multiverse of Sheith, This is all Slav's fault, This was supposed to be a drabble, Tired Shiro, but also a bit of angst? maybe?, but not really anything more than what you'd get in canon, idk why im posting this, jaded shiro, lowkey taking bets, slightly cracky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 16:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9450656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantacination/pseuds/Mythril
Summary: Alternate Realities are Serious Business. And Slav is determined to get the best possible outcome.If that means the Black and Red Paladins need to get married, asap, well, then, Shiro and Keith just have to take one for the Universe.





	

“Alright, everyone get some sleep. It’s a big day tomorrow,” Shiro advised the team as they broke apart, leaving the command deck to head towards their sleeping quarters.

“Uh, I just thought of something,” Lance said, raising his hand as they walked. “Where’s _he_ gonna sleep?” He pointed at Slav, who was following them to what was essentially the paladin barracks, tiny hands fiddling with one of Coran’s echo cubes.

“I don’t see a problem in the accommodations,” Slav said, the metal toy twisting in his hands like a rubix cube.

“There are _five_ rooms.”

“Yes. One for each paladin and myself. Accounting for the married two sharing one,” Slav said reasonably.

Hunk blinked.

“Whoa, wait up, someone got married and didn’t tell us?”

Shiro tried not to notice how Hunk and Pidge’s glances drifted uncomfortably close to him, hanging at the back of the pack with Keith. That was really uncalled for.

“Nobody’s married in this reality, Slav,” he said instead, voice tight with leashed frustration. Slav had actually been relatively helpful, if vastly obnoxious, today, and he didn’t want to have too many temperamental episodes in one day. Hunk had started to skirt around him warily, like he might blow up at any moment.

“You’re not?” Slav gasped, scandalized, and threw four pairs of hands up in a desperate flail, two clutching his head.

“We’re doomed! None of the realities in which Voltron succeeds has a Black and Red Paladin who aren’t married!”

“ _What_?”

Slav gripped Shiro’s human hand and Keith’s left sleeve- mostly because Keith had flinched. “You _must_ get married. _Immediately_. It’s for the good of the universe!”

“Uh?” Keith said eloquently.

“I don’t think realities work that way,” Pidge offered. “I mean, isn’t that just rigging it? The other factors that end up in them marrying should match first.”

“No, no, don’t you see, each variable which matches increases the likelihood of other variables matching the best possible outcome! The Black and Red Paladin must get married if you want to have a shot at ending the Empire tomorrow!”

“We can’t just _get_ married, especially not right now,” Shiro said, pinching the bridge of his nose. All he wanted was to lay down and stare at the darkness of his ceiling. Maybe even get some sleep for a change.

“Well, yeah, we’d kind of need a priest or a government official or something,” Lance pondered.

“Actually,” Pidge piped up, “technically, Allura could do it. She’s a princess. And she’s pretty much captain on the ship.”

“Wait, so who’s gonna marry me and Allura? Does that mean we’ll have to fly back to earth?”

“Yeah, I don’t think that'll be your problem,” Pidge said with a snort.

“So… we just have to ask the Princess for her blessing?” Keith asked slowly, interrupting Lance's next statement.

“Keith,” Shiro said in surprise. “You’re not actually--”

“Every little bit of preparation counts. If we can stack something in our favor, why not?’” Keith asked.

“That’s--” Shiro paused mid-sentence in surprise. He wasn’t sure where to start. The fact that marriage was a serious decision? Keith’s confession that he was like a brother to him? The implications of both?

“Look, I’m just saying, it’s an important battle,” Keith said uncomfortably, apparently now aware of the strange looks he was getting.

And something about the stress of the day and the way Keith’s chin tucked, the collar of his jacket shielding his face, made something in Shiro snap. Fuck. Why not? If only for the little bit of him that might die with regret tomorrow.

“Sure. Fine, let’s do it.”

“Dibs on best man!” Lance said immediately.

“I thought you hated Keith again,” Hunk pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but I’m gonna be _Shiro’s_ best man! Besides, Keith’s totally Elizabeth here.”

“Elizabeth?” Keith frowned.

“Classic movie, losers wouldn’t get it,” Lance said airily to Keith’s deepening pout.

“Well then what are we waiting for? Hurry, it won’t be today for long! Every moment brings us closer to the flash point!” Slav pushed them both back down the hall. “We could be looking at the end of this reality if you don’t!”

Somehow or other, Shiro thought in vaguely detached fascination and deep, hysterical bemusement, a wedding happened.

Allura agreed to marry them, even if she didn’t quite understand what earth customs were and Pidge was trying to explain. She seemed charmed by the idea, if not necessarily half of the participants. Shiro had always suspected her to be a secret romantic.

Hunk had charged into the kitchen to bake them a cake with fresh buttercream from Kaltenecker.

Slav had been roped into creating garlands, apparently an Altean tradition which could take full advantage of his abundance of fingers.

Lance was trying to coax a suit from the crafting units and someone, Shiro suspected Coran, had press ganged their two Galran guests into joining in the festivities.  

“I don’t understand,” Kolivan was saying helplessly as he was given a basket of flowers and a handful of enthusiastic space mice. Antok, wearing a wreathe of what looked like one of Coran’s misjudged experiments, was trying to persuade one of the mice off Kolivan.

This was going to be the most awkward wedding ever for all the wrong reasons.

Shiro sucked in a breath, telling himself not to laugh, but he did anyway. A short, low guffaw that all but ripped out of him like one of Hunk’s flatulent episodes. It was almost a relief.

Keith, beside him, jerked in his seat, looking as bewildered as Kolivan felt now that the mice were climbing him.

“What?”

“I-- I just… this isn’t how I thought I’d be getting married. Especially to you,” Shiro said. “But I should’ve known it would.” After all, the past year and a half had been something of a cosmic fuck-you, for all that he could remember of it, turning the things he had loved about space, about fighting and flying into a dark duty, a yoke that threatened to choke.

“You thought you’d get married to me?” Keith asked, baffled.

Sobering, Shiro squeezed his shoulder. “It was idle thinking. I know you’ve never thought that way about me.” But the more time he spent with Keith, the more he remembered how easy it had always been, to be together, even when the stakes were high and consequences dire. Keith, with his struggles to understand people and his awe-inspiring talent, his earnestness, had never been ready to know.

“No, wait,” Keith said, his hand reaching up to cover Shiro’s. “I-- you mean a lot to me, Shiro,” he said urgently, as though he could convey some kind of secret meaning with it.

“I know,” Shiro said as gently and quickly as he could. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear exactly what Keith thought a second time.

“No, you don’t, I-- I don’t think I told you enough.”

“What do you mean?” Shiro said, breath catching even as his rational brain told him to stop. It won’t be what he thinks.

“I said my life would be a lot different without you. When you were gone, nothing was the same. It was like… being hollowed out.” Keith struggled to get the words out. “I don’t… I don’t want to feel that ever again. I thought I could do it. But when I saw you walk away… I wanted you back. My dad offered me a choice- my past or the universe, and I-- I wouldn’t have been able to make that choice without you. Now, part of me can't _imagine_ a choice without you.”

“Keith--”

“Listen,” Keith interrupted, voice a harsh undertone. “Don’t… don’t leave me.” Keith fisted a hand around the wide neck of Shiro’s cuirass, pulling himself up on it, and pressed a clumsy kiss to Shiro’s face, barely catching the corner of Shiro’s open mouth.

Shiro’s hand involuntarily tightened on Keith’s shoulder, too shocked to even kiss back.

Keith’s head ducked back, his slim frame straightening on the sofa they shared and his face flushed. Shiro wanted to touch his warm cheeks, feel the glow of them on his lips.

So he did, cupping Keith’s face and turning them so he could give him a proper kiss, slow and dragging. Just a tint hungrier than he intended.

Keith’s hand turned into the curve of Shiro’s back, fingers scraping the edge where it met his flight suit.

Each touch felt like a spark, like a shot of caffeine. And suddenly, Shiro remembered what coffee tasted like.

“Hey newlyweds, save it for after the wedding!” Lance hollered. He was sporting a new suit, done in a deep blue that brought out his eyes, and preening for Allura.

“Can’t, we’ll be busy then,” Shiro called back, just to see Lance’s face turn faintly green.

“Ugh, TMI, I need to bleach the Keith from my brain.”

Shiro laughed, a lighter one than the last. He hadn’t felt this light, like he’d had a good night’s sleep, in far too long. Maybe not since he first left.  “ _Sleeping_ , Lance.”

“Sleeping?” Keith asked quietly, curled up against Shiro’s side like he’d melted there.

“I’m sure we’ll get some done,” Shiro shrugged, and smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Now think about what it'd mean if they'd gotten married before the big battle. I'm sorry. 
> 
> But: You know how in Marvel comics big Civil War arc, they discovered the only universe where Civil War didn't happen and wreck the entire superhero community and more was the reality in which Captain America and female Iron man /Natasha stark got married? 
> 
> SLAV KNOWS BEST. You should have married Keith, Shiro. 
> 
> I wrote this in one sitting when I should've been working and/or writing FF or BoMKeith sexytimes, so I really can't attest to quality but I am feeling S2 Shiro right now. So I hope it was good for a couple of laughs, at least. :'D 
> 
> As usual, let me know what you think. ♥


End file.
